Wood particleboard has been manufactured throughout the world quite extensively over the past two decades. Particleboard, however, did not come into prominent use until decorative laminates were found to be susceptible to adherence thereto in the production of highly decorative building products. As the popularity of particleboard increased, so did the necessity for it to conform to the general standards of both universal and specific building codes and to the specific demands of the ultimate consumer. One of the prime requirements with regard to the use of particleboard, especially in the production of and the decoration of dwellings, is that of fire-retardance.
As now practiced, most methods for imparting flame-retardance to wood particleboard involve the treatment of the wood chips used with an aqueous fire-retardant solution, followed by chip drying and finally chip gluing and particleboard consolidation. Other methods wherein the wood chips are dusted with solid frame-retardant additive are also practiced although less actively. When single layer particleboard is produced in accordance with currently practiced procedures, each chip contains flame-retardant. Similarly, if a multi-layered particleboard is to be produced, every wood chip in each layer of the board contains a fire-retardant additive.